Authenticating callers in a contact center has historically been an imprecise, onerous process. With the advent of mobile communication devices, this process has become even more difficult to verify if the calling party is actually who they say they are.
To deal with these problems, security questions are a commonly used mechanism to authenticate callers. If the security information becomes compromised, then another party may be able to pose as the user.
Solutions that use Automatic Number Identification (ANI) for the caller's identity tie the ANI to a particular location (land-line) or physical device (mobile device). However, using the ANI does not necessarily identify the correct user because the ANI may be spoofed. Moreover, the ANI does not ensure that the correct individual is using the phone.
Active/passive voice biometrics provide a high level of certainty that the correct party is speaking to an agent. However, this technology is very resource intensive if employed for each call to the contact center.